Jones Apparel Takes Top Award for Cause Marketing

A campaign to help overburdened K-12 teachers while burnishing the image and motivating the employees and customers of the Jones Apparel Group won an unprecedented three awards in the fourth annual Cause Marketing Halo Awards competition.

Jones New York In The Classroom will receive a Gold Award for the Best Social Service/Education Campaign and a Gold for Best National/Local Integration categories; the program is also recognized with a Silver for Best Print Creative at the awards luncheon being held today in New York during the Cause Marketing Forum conference.

“The Cause Marketing Halo Awards demonstrate the good that can be done when businesses and nonprofits team up,” said David Hessekiel, president of the Cause Marketing Forum, the program’s organizer. “It’s a competition in which we all win.” Cause marketing is the strategy of building mutually beneficial alliances between companies and causes, he said.

In 1990, cause-marketing spending was a bit more than $100 million; this year it is forecast to top $1.3 billion, according to analysis by the CMF.

In addition to the Jones Apparel program, which was the subject of a cover story in the August 2005 edition of PROMO, The Home Depot and KaBOOM! each received Cause Marketing Golden Halo Awards for their leadership in this field. Sixteen category-specific awards were given to campaigns that occurred in whole or in part in 2005. They were:

Best Environmental/Wildlife Campaign
Gold: Iams Home For the Holidays, The Iams Company amd Helen Woodward Animal Center
Silver: AT&T’s My SBC eBill Paperless Program, AT&T and National Arbor Day Foundation

Best Health Campaign
Gold: Cook for the Cure, KitchenAid and Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
Silver: Luna/Breast Cancer Fund Partnership, Clif Bar and the Breast Cancer Fund

Best Social Service/Education Campaign
Gold: Jones New York In The Classroom, Jones Apparel Group and Teachers Count, New Teacher Academy, Fund for Teachers and Adopt-A-Classroom
Silver: “Save Our History, The History Channel and American Assoc. for State & Local History

Best Joint Message Promotion
Gold: Change Your Clock, Change Your Battery, Energizer and Intl. Assoc. of Fire Chiefs
Silver: Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil, ALDO Group and YouthAIDS

Best Print Creative
Gold:
Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil, ALDO Group and YouthAIDS
Silver: Jones New York In The Classroom, Jones Apparel Group and Teachers Count, New Teacher Academy, Fund for Teachers and Adopt-A-Classroom

Best Transactional Campaign
Gold:
Music Rising, Gibson Guitar, Guitar Center and MusiCares
Silver: Cones for Kids, Easter Seals and Friendly Ice Cream Corporation

Best Cause Marketing Event:
Gold:
Hyundai Hope on Wheels, Hyundai Motor America and CureSearch Silver: The World’s Largest Ice Cream Social, Cold Stone Creamery and The Make-A-Wish Foundation of America

Best National/Local Integration
Gold:
Jones New York In The Classroom, Jones Apparel Group and Teachers Count, New Teacher Academy, Fund for Teachers and Adopt-A-Classroom
Silver: Ford Get Tied to the Cure, Ford Motor Co. and Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation